July 26, 2026: American Army combat engineers are using a new Mule 28 octocopter drone weighing 20.4 kg and carrying a payload of up to 90.7 kg. The drone carries a sensor package capable of recognizing faces, vehicles, and weapons. The drone navigates by obtaining map coordinates from its video feed and using trigonometry to precisely land where it needs to be to destroy enemy obstacles. This is much more efficient than the traditional methods that employed Bangalore torpedoes.

Twenty-four years ago, the American Army began replacing the century-old Bangalore Torpedo mine-clearing system with a lighter and more effective device, which has become a crucial bit of equipment in the face of growing Taliban use of landmines. The APOBS/Anti-Personnel Obstacle Breaching System was introduced in 2002 after eight years of development. Weighing only 57 kg, compared to the older 205 kg Bangalore Torpedo, the APOBS could be carried by two men, whereas the older system required ten or more. APOBS can be set up in under two minutes. It uses a rocket system that carries a cable with explosives attached. The explosion clears mines and bombs from a 45-meter-long and one-meter-wide path.

Britain has a similar system, called Python, but it is not light enough to be carried by troops, which is important in many combat situations. Britain used Python for the first time in Afghanistan. Python uses a rocket that carries an explosives-filled 228-meter tube filled with 1.4 tons of explosives. When the tube lands, the explosives detonate, destroying over 90 percent of mines and other explosive devices in an area 180 meters long and 7 meters wide. The cleared area has to be double-checked for mines or devices that survived Python, but this can be done quickly, and troops and vehicles can rush through the cleared lane if they are under fire.

The Python is basically an update of a similar system developed in the 1950s: Giant Viper. The Americans had a similar system, the Mk 154 Mine Clearance System, which uses rockets to propel a cable stuffed with explosives down a road. The explosives are detonated, and all mines and roadside bombs are detonated or disabled over an area of 14 by 100 meters. The Mk 154 was originally designed to quickly clear mines during combat. But it turns out to work against booby traps and roadside bombs as well.

All these systems were developed from the Bangalore torpedo. This system used explosives-filled tubes that had to be pushed into position. The original Bangalore torpedo was developed before World War I for quickly clearing booby traps. A few years later, it was found to be highly effective at clearing barbed-wire barriers during World War I and remained widely used during World War II.

APOBS received a Mod 2 upgrade in 2006. Each APOBS system costs about $52,000. The Army and Marines ordered over 10,000 and used most of those in combat and training.